We need to take care of the unbelievers. When the Lord comes back, He will ask us about the unbelievers. We cannot tell the Lord, “I did not have guidance from You.” The Lord has given us the guidance already. At least we have our relatives, neighbors, friends, classmates, and many persons on the street. It is one hundred percent right that every Christian has to have some part in gospel preaching. This is our duty. Why do we not do it? There are many reasons why, but one of the most important reasons is that we are not rightly related to the other brothers and sisters. If we are rightly related to our fellow members, we will have some work of gospel preaching.
To have the outreach is one hundred percent right, but we should not make it a regulation. Still, it is right to encourage the brothers and sisters to bring at least one person to the Lord yearly. It sounds like a small thing to bring one person to the Lord in three hundred and sixty-five days. However, if we now have one hundred people meeting together, and each one brings one yearly, the next year we will have two hundred people, one-fold increase. Then the third year we will have four hundred, the fourth year eight hundred, the fifth year sixteen hundred, the sixth year thirty-two hundred, the seventh year sixty-four hundred, and the eighth year twelve thousand eight hundred. This is marvelous. I do not say this to push you; I simply say that this is our duty.
Why would we not fulfill this duty? It is because we are not rightly related. If the saints are willing to be built up, our number will increase more than one-fold yearly. In 1949 in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, we had close to a thirty-fold increase in only a year, from about thirty to fifty people to over one thousand. This was possible because of our relatedness. With relatedness we are very prevailing to bring people to the Lord. We may have a relative who is not saved, and it may be hard for us to help him to be saved. However, if we are related to the brothers or sisters, we can ask all those to whom we are related to help us. For one or two nights we can invite our relative and all these dear brothers to our home. Perhaps twelve persons can be there, giving testimony after testimony with much convincing speaking. In this way others can help us to convince our relative, and then we with the others will help to convince his neighbor. This is the way the brothers in Taipei did their preaching. They did not trust in preaching in public places. Of course, they had much preaching in public, but they did not trust only in that.
To preach in the way of inviting someone to come to our home for dinner is more practical than public preaching. When they come, there will be twelve persons waiting for them. How can they resist? This is what it means to be related. We do not preach the gospel or deal with our relatives by ourselves. We are the members related to the whole Body. Sometimes after the Lord’s table, a brother in Taipei would stand to say that he had a neighbor who needed to be saved. This person may have been a worshipper of Buddha, so the brother would ask the whole church to pray for him. Because the whole church prayed, it was easy to deal with the Buddhist. There is no need to go into detail about how to do this. I have just given some hints that we must put into practice. If we are first related to others and then go to serve, work, and preach, we will see the results.
We should first put the names of all the persons we know—our relatives, neighbors, classmates, and friends—on a list and check one by one whether each one has been saved. Then we should consider each name and seek the Lord’s guidance. The Lord will be with us and will burden us with at least two or three persons for the present time. Then we must pray for them and seek the Lord’s guidance as to how to contact them. The Lord may lead us to send them some books or tracts or to have some kind of contact with them. In this way we will have the wisdom and power to move and work. In addition, we should refer these matters to the brothers and sisters to whom we are related. This will be a real, practical, and prevailing preaching of the gospel, and it will be very fruitful. After a certain time, of course, the church may have a gospel preaching meeting. Then we should bring our friends or the persons for whom we are concerned. It will be easy for them to be saved.
We have to encourage one another to bring at least one unbeliever to the Lord yearly. As a local church we have to produce something for the Lord. We should not be on one extreme nor on the other extreme. We need to be in the middle to be balanced. We know how to fellowship with the Lord, and we know how to fellowship with the saints and to be built up in the Body. Then we function to produce something for the Lord. I am one hundred percent sure that we will see that this is truly effective and prevailing. We will see people saved through us, and not only once a year. The Holy Spirit will honor this, and this will stir up our spirit. The more we love others, the more we love sinners for the Lord’s sake, the more we will be strong in the spirit.